Похождения Бутиной

[tijd]

NRA потратила на выборы Трампа рекордную сумму в $30 миллионов - в три раза больше, чем на Ромни в 2012, и в два раза больше, чем крупнейший индивидуальный донор - Роберт Мерсер. Ныне выясняется, что финансы организации дышат на ладан.

The National Rifle Association warns that it is in grave financial jeopardy, according to a recent court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, and that it could soon “be unable to exist… or pursue its advocacy mission.”
The reason, according to the NRA filing, is not its deep entanglement with alleged Russian agents like Maria Butina. Instead, the gun group has been suing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s financial regulators since May, claiming the NRA has been subject to a state-led “blacklisting campaign” that has inflicted “tens of millions of dollars in damages.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/nra-financial-trouble-706371/

Oh god, . @DavidCornDC is right! They really are Boris & Natasha! pic.twitter.com/VmqmNW74RS
- Speculawyer 🇳🇴-American (@speculawyer) August 4, 2018

Когда в начале мая скандально известного Оливера Норта внезапно назначили президентом NRA, это нарушило правила организации, согласно которым президент служит два срока, после чего его сменяет отслуживший два срока первый вице-президент. Публика об этом не знала, но за две недели до съезда NRA в Далласе с участием Трампа и Пенса, на котором Норт неожиданно для себя узнал, что будет президентом, сотрудники ФБР нагрянули с обыском к Марии Бутиной. Дэвид Корн из Mother Jones задается резонным вопросом: не связаны ли эти два события?

This development puzzled NRA watchers. North had not been in the line of succession. He was not prepared for the position and said he would need weeks before he could assume the post. Brownell was the first NRA president in a decade and a half not to seek a second term, and the first vice president, Richard Childress, was passed over. Childress claimed that because of his own commitments he could not even serve as interim president. That job went to the second vice president, Carolyn Meadows. The NRA had been known as an outfit with a strict hierarchy. But now all that was being thrown aside in what North called an “unexpected” and “sudden” action.
What wasn’t publicly known at the time was that on April 25-two weeks before this seemingly hasty NRA leadership makeover-FBI agents in tactical gear raided the apartment of Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian who three months later would be charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly serving as a secret agent for the Russian government in the United States.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/did-alleged-russian-spy-maria-butina-cause-a-leadership-shake-up-at-the-nra-1/

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В интервью Корна MSNBC об этой истории упоминалось не только сравнение Торшина и Бутиной с Борисом и Наташей, но и песня Уоррена Зивона Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too

I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this

I'm the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck

Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan

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У самой Бутиной музыкальные вкусы оказались похожими. Знал или догадывался Джон Шиндлер, когда писал "If you (and it's plural, quite plural) stuck your d*ck in Comrade Butina call your lawyer now, this morning, to set up a chat with the FBI", но список ухажеров Бутиной продолжает расти. Выяснилось, что ее водил на свидание и на концерт рок-группы Styx Дж.Д. Гордон, печально известный изменением программы республиканской партии в 2016.

Butina sought out interactions with J.D. Gordon, who served for six months as the Trump campaign’s director of national security before leaving in August 2016 and being offered a role in the nascent Trump transition effort, according to documents and testimony provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and described to The Washington Post.
The two exchanged several emails in September and October 2016, culminating in an invitation from Gordon to attend a concert by the rock band Styx in Washington. Gordon also invited Butina to attend his birthday party in late October of that year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-associate-socialized-with-alleged-russian-agent-maria-butina-in-final-weeks-of-2016-campaign/2018/08/03/d87c1d84-96a6-11e8-80e1-00e80e1fdf43_story.html

Сыграв ключевую роль в избирательной кампании Трампа (в качестве Director of National Security, который привлек в качестве советников Картера Пейджа и Джорджа Пападопулоса), Гордон ушел в тень после выборов.